I post this to relate an experience with an online store called Able Hobby. I feel I have been ripped off by these people and have received no satisfaction on remedying the situation.
I placed a bid on an item on Ebay and won. The total amount here is only $15.35. Not an amount that will cause me any hardship but it is sufficient to be a matter of principle.
On 12/21/03 I paid for the item via Paypal and have a receipt for payment to prove I honored my agreement to pay if I won.
Now the information provided by Able Hobby concerning the transaction indicated they would ship immediately upon receipt of payment. They also indicated they would contact the winner within a couple of days. I received no emails from them until I inquired as to what was up with the transaction. I indicated that they should ship the item or refund my money.
I received a reply on 1/5/04 stating that they would "get someone on it". It was another 4 days before I received any reply and this was ONLY after another inquiry via email. The reply was that the item had shipped.
I waited until 1/20/04, a month after I paid for the item, and requested a refund since I never received the item. The reply was " YOUR ITEM HAS SHIPPED AS STATED IN PREVIOUS EMAIL" (The caps are theirs. They appear to yelling at me now.) They claim they send 100's of packages and only a few get misplaced. By their own admission some do get misplaced. So I must assume that they screw those persons as well.
My latest inquiry as to why they won't honor their agreement has gone unanswered.
I don't expect to ever get satisfaction from these people. My last option is to warn others to beware when dealing with them.
I have all the emails to back up these claims.
Kirk
"There's a lot to be said for a blow to the head", BOC.
Hello Kirk I can certainly understand your frustrations here, but be very careful how you post such a message for the whole World to read. It just may be that the item was lost in the mail. You would probably feel a little foolish if the subject item would mysteriously show up some day from a pile of misplaced Christmas packages.
how many years should one wait before expecting some action by the sender?
I didn't see the "actually mailed on" date being mentioned nor did I see any reference to "we started a trace". If the exchange mentioned these things then Kirk should have mentioned that.
I don't know about posting here (other than some stress relief), I'd be banging on EBay.
I can vouch for that. Having worked with 3rd Class mail I have seen some mailing labels come off. These items then go into the "nixie" bin, then to the dead letter office, where they _attempt_ to unite the package with the intended party. It can take months, sometimes years.
Sometimes, sadly, stuff gets destroyed in the mail. Back around the end of November I offered tips for packaging stuff for Christmas. Pack your stuff to survive a 5-foot drop, because that's how far it falls from the conveyor belt to the bottom of the empty shipping box for the intended zip code. If your stuff wasn't insured and it was destroyed (absolutely mangled), I'm not sure what would happen to it, but presumably it would be thrown out. Less damaged stuff I've seen repackaged with a note from USPS saying it was destroyed in the machinery.
As far as I know, eBay and/or Paypal have some type of buyer protection plan; but it may depend on the users rating as to whether or not it is covered. You may want to look into this option.
Chris Curren
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I think the original poster said the item was less than $20.00. Forget it and consider it a learning experience. Or do like the other person here said and send e-mails or call the people and look for satisfaction. I am always amazed at how bad people are at getting the attention of businesses they buy things from. I find it hard to believe the original poster couldn't have gotten satisfaction focusing some attention on the people he bought the item from but instead he writes a negative post here. That to me seems like a knee jerk reaction instead of a productive attempt to resolve the situation. Just my opinion.
Does it show some lack of sophistication to post negative statements here rather than take care of the situation directly with the business on eBay? Just asking. Please don't come back with the "I tried to take care of it directly but that didn't work." My opinion is that you didn't get creative enough dealing with the company if in fact you were wronged.
And all this talk here about lawsuits is nonsense. It's like that guy a few weeks back who was throwing out all this lawsuit talk because someone else here reposted some raunchy postings the guy posted previously in a sex newsgroup. Haven't heard from either one in weeks. There's a lot of nonsense and hot air here.
But some negative feedbacks are left by people in retaliation...after THEY were given a negative feedback for not complying with instructions in an auction. They make up some bleeding heart excuse, as one asshole did when leaving me (as a seller) some negative feedback. He claimed he was in the hospital for 28 days -- yet was bidding on stuff elsewhere around EBay the whole time. Another left negative feedback after he decided the final bid price wasn't enough AFTER completing the Paypal payment I made (as a buyer) -- claiming he had in the auction description "No Paypal". But how come there were all the automatic payment logos, etc. from Paypal in his auction page...hmmmmm! It took about two months for him to return the Paypal payment I made. And the even funnier thing was, he relisted the item and got an even LOWER final bid there. Never did check to see if he tried to screw that buyer.
Huh? How long have you been using Ebay, anyway? Doesn't sound like very long. 97.8% is better than *my* feedback rating on Ebay, and the only complaints I've gotten are from absolute nuts (one from a guy who didn't even bid on my auction, then complained I never shipped him the item he didn't win! This was before Ebay required a transaction number to go with feedback).
Are you expecting a 100% feedback rating? There are so many crazy idiots out there (no, the customer *isn't* always right) that a 100% rating would be impossible, IMO, with more than a few auctions under your belt. I have not seen many Ebay power sellers with higher ratings than 97.8%.
He does Ebay sales, he has a Yahoo store, he has a regular web site, he ships worldwide, and he advertises in magazines. You think he doesn't do 100 packages per day? If not, then this hobby is in a sad state, because I could ship 1,000 packages per day selling dog poo for fifty bucks a pound with that kind of exposure.
It's beside the point, though. Really, what *is* your point? You had a bad experience, so HC is a bad seller? Why don't you buy from someone else and let the rest of us buy from who we feel like buying from?
However, "noname" is right, I didn't look at the total numer, but if the feedback number is over 100, 97.8 IS pretty bad.
I don't think I've ever placed a bid with someone who was less than 99% positive.
FWIW, with 287 feedbacks, my own rating is 286 positive, 1 neutral. (Guy wasn't happy with a vintage Hobbytown GP-9 chassis I sold him, I gave him his money back.)
Ha! Are you kidding?? Ebay down time? Man, you're really digging at straws here.
Nobody who's pissed off just shrugs and says "oh well". They leave negative feedback. If you rip me off, you think I'm going to sit back and take it because I'm afraid of online retaliation? Because I'm lazy? Because of system down time?! Give me a break! You're lucky if I don't schedule a stop by your house with a baseball bat, much less leave negative feedback!
Please.
Conservatively, 75% of model
And it's about 100% too high.
Bullshit. Here's the link again:
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Tell me any of those positives are "lukewarm" or "harsh". These were obviously satisfied customers, and your saying anything else is being ridiculously presumptuous *at best*. Just read what's actually there, right there, on the site.
low price.
Or, more likely, you're not a disgruntled buyer out for blood, as you seem to be.
Looks to me like they charge $7.99 for UPS shipping of single items. How is this gouging? It may be a little high but it's also balanced out by the fact that they ship larger items for *less* than normal. Like charging $8.99 for the 20 pound box I received from them by UPS. Lots of companies do this - basically charge a flat rate for most items, and it's not as if they don't disclose the fact up front (it's right there on the auction page).
Lots of the more unreasonable *buyers* I've seen expect to pay the exact UPS shipping cost listed on the UPS site, down to the ounce and the cent. Real life doesn't work that way, my boy. Packaging costs money, labels cost money, and published rates are often different than what you actually pay (those rates on the web site only apply if you actually go to a UPS customer counter). Flat rates also make it easier for companies that sell a lot of items to keep things simple - make a buck or two extra on some items, lose a buck or two on others. In the end it all works out, and everybody knew your shipping charges ahead of time (before bidding) so there's no harm done.
The fact that I need to explain this to you proves to me that you are not a seller on Ebay.
Anyway, you told me in another thread to read this "analysis" of yours, and I did. Like everything else you've written today, it's just hogwash. I've said my peace, I'm done talking about it. If you got ripped off by somebody on Ebay, or if you *think* you did, that's your problem and I hope someday you'll be able to deal with your anger over it.
On the other hand, if they gave IQ tests before people could bid on EBay, the trafiic would be cut in half. And the poor boy who can't even remember his name would not even get to bid, let alone complain when he wins.
Holy cow Williams. You may be conversant about Amtrak and passenger car models but you're a flaming dimwit when it comes to eBay. I'm almost ready to accuse you of being associated with Hobby Circle.
Before I repond to your comments item by item, would you care to explain why your eBay related opinions should be given any merit when you had only135 feedback, 3 negatives when eBay permanently banned you (NARU)?
This comment proves you are a totally inexperienced eBayer. Before Meg hired a computer engineer who knew what he was doing, eBay was down on Sunday evenings as a rule rather than the exception. In the past two months, eBay's site behavior has been so bizarre and erratic, they've given to refunding listing fees when requested. **This is totally unheard of prior to these most recent problems**
I've listed more than 1100 auctions since mid December. Over 95% of my attempts to log in to eBay using IE have failed in that time. Over 50% of my attempts to leave feedback have been thwarted by eBay outages.
Being the idiot that you are, you didn't bother to check any model railroaders' feedback did you? Since you're so lazy and inept, try polling this group: How many total feedbacks received? left for others? How many negatives left? Model railroaders are adverse to leaving negative feedback. A seller's shortcoming has to be egregious to get 'negged'.
This is a direct reflection on the demographics of the hobby.
You are a flaming dumbass to the max degree. You didn't look at that either. He's got (4) non complimentary remarks out of his first (25) feedbacks listed [curent page #1 of his feedback] plus (2) negatives.
WOULDN'T ANSWER E-MAILS- TERRIBLE SELLER ...shipping took a while 21 days have passed, no product Seller never seems to acknowledge or respond to email Nightmare! paid dec 18, received jan 15 ! bad packaging Fixes problems
These quotes come from eBay users whose combined feedback is:
563 positives, 2 negatives, "Left for Others" = 5 negatives! Not one of them has ever left a negative feedback except against Hobby Circle. They have received only 2 negative feedbacks among them [99.644%]
Why would you post such flagrant untrue contradictions to my post unless you are associated with this sleezy dealer?
extraordinarily low price.
Disgruntled my ass, you n*****ts. I'm much too experienced to do business with someone whose feedback history puts him in the bottom .1% [POINT one percent] of all eBay model RR vendors. That's not taking into account that none of his prices are particularly low, plus he has EXTREMELY high-priced shipping charges.
(for model
20 LB box for an Acela set?! I doubt it. Have you checked the UPS website for a rate estimate between you and Brooklyn? How far did that $8.99 package travel -- less than 20 miles?
That's correct if you chose "customer counter" on the website rate calculator. But what you fail to mention is that it's even cheaper to ship from the store.
What an idiot. You're NARUed from eBay. I have over 10,000 feedback (1 negative) I've bought and sold over 20,000 model RR items from/to other eBay user sin 5+ years, including about a dozen readers of this group. I remain anonymous because they're idiots like you who would sabatoge my eBay auctions and feedback.
You don't have to worry about being ripped off by model railroaders. They're a few dealers to be wary of (especially tinplate dealers in my experience) When a description says "God bless you" or TCA member #xxxx, or "you can trust me, I'm honest", I run.
Likewise I've taken 3 bounced checks over the years, 2 were from members of this group. All were made good.
I have no clue as to who "Jerry" is; I must have him kill filed. Am I missing anything of consequence by not reading his posts?
As to my "anger", what are you talking about? I'm in no way angry. What would I be angry about? As far as "hiding behind an alias", I've explained that.
And why would my anonymity be of concern to you? What would you have to gain by knowing my identity? How would publicizing my name benefit me?
Will, you haven't answered my question. What are you afraid of, showing yourself to be the moron I accuse you of being? You initiated this conversation by alleging incompetence by USPS because your "cards" arrived 11 months late.
Seeing as the delivery took place in Canada, how do you attribute the tardy delivery to the US Postal System?
I've been on eBay longer than your NARUed ID, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com which was registered in Sept 98. BTW, your anecdote about the "crazy" leaving you a negative when he hadn't even won one of your auctions is either a lie, OR you were registered previously under another ID and got kicked off eBay once before?
How do I know? Mostly because I'm so much smarter than you.
In the early years of eBay, members *could* leave feedback that was not transaction related. In other words, you could neg your neighbor's eBay ID because he screwed your wife. You didn't have to win one of his auctions to do it. eBay disabled this function the Summer of '98. That was prior to your registering this ID, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com
So how did the "crazy" leave you unjust negative feedback when he hadn't won your auction as you claim?
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